Sam Darnold is back in the lineup for the Seahawks. After missing Week 2 with a glute injury, he practiced fully on Thursday and Friday and was cleared by Mike Macdonald as ready to play Sunday against Washington.
That changes the shape of Seattle's week immediately. Darnold opened as a limited participant on Wednesday, then moved to full work on Thursday and stayed there Friday, the kind of progression that usually points to a quarterback being prepared to take the field rather than manage the game from the sideline.
The timing matters because the Seahawks are not getting healthier everywhere. Julian Love did not practice on Thursday or Friday because of a calf injury and has been ruled out, while Ty Okada will miss a third straight game with a hamstring injury. That leaves AJ Finley to join Rodney Thomas II in the starting lineup, a necessary adjustment for a defense that has already been forced to redraw its back end.
Seattle does get one more piece of good news. Jadarian Price, who left last week's win in Arizona with a chest injury, practiced fully on Friday and is ready to go. Brandon Pili remains questionable after exiting last week's game with a concussion, so the Seahawks still have one defensive availability decision hanging over them even as the quarterback picture clears.
Washington has its own absences, including Jayden Daniels, Samuel Cosmi, Nick Cross, Frankie Luvu and Chigoziem Okonkwo, and Javon Kinlaw returned to practice on a limited basis after missing the day before. But the main Seattle story is simpler: the offense gets its starter back, and the defense has to live through a week without both of its starting safeties.
For the Seahawks, that is the real tradeoff heading into Sunday. Darnold is ready to go, and that should steady the offense, but Seattle will have to trust a reshaped secondary to hold up long enough for it to matter.
